


hibiscus

by magicinourfingertips



Series: the language of flowers [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: i listened to reflection (mulan) while writing this, using the meaning of flowers to delicately address petra's death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-28
Updated: 2019-07-28
Packaged: 2020-07-23 15:50:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20010868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicinourfingertips/pseuds/magicinourfingertips
Summary: the flowers wilted and she grew up.





	hibiscus

when she was growing up, she had a dream. 

a vast ocean glimmered in front of her as she picked up leftover shells from the sand, running past laughing children that were weaving flowers into their hair. she never knew what the dream meant or why she was having it, but she always knew that she wanted to work and find that place of serenity.

from a girl that grew up in a humble wealthy home, she slowly grew into a mature young lady helping her mother sell bunched up bouquets of flowers at the corner of the streets. 

money was never a problem for her, she loved selling flowers with her mother. until, well, she passed away. the money that she had as a child slowly trickled away in the drains, down to the underground when they were robbed. her father slowly distanced himself from the home, ushering her to join the survey corps whenever he was home because he believed in a brighter future there.

_the flowers wilted and she grew up._

day after day, she worked hard as she got into the survey corps, training in between meals and paperwork. she was ecstatic when she got into the elite team Levi opened up for the better soldiers.

sitting down in the pantry after a hardworking evening, petra sang softly to herself. She had just finished dusting down her room and working on paperwork under levi’s orders of a free afternoon. The paperwork was filled with tears because of the familiar friends she lost in the war and she desperately wanted a break to fill in the gaps.

when she was still a florist, she remembered picking flowers up and reflecting upon the language of flowers. she often loved learning with her mother who would explain the details to her with a calm demeanour. 

the hibiscus flower was often worn by women and was said to be an item of femininity. if given by the other gender, it was to be meaning that one had a delicate beauty. when she was little, petra didn’t like how the receiver was seen as delicate and often saved the flowers up to dry for drinking purposes. she believed the flower gave her strength.

the flower did give her strength now, a soft warmth that sank lowly in the depths of her stomach.

maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to drink the precious hibiscus tea she had stashed in her room, but she didn’t really care about such things at the moment. It was better than stealing the tea levi had stashed inside the lower cupboards and besides, the hibiscus tea did it’s job in making her more easygoing.

as the warmth of the tea sank in, petra turn to look at the pouch she always kept by her side.

inside the pouch was a cut out piece of mirror that she had broken in the process of packing for the survey corps. the jagged ends of the mirror did not deter her from looking in her reflection every time she picked it back up, just like how she never failed to pick up her frail body every time she failed in training and start over.

she picked up the piece of mirror, but yelped as she saw blood coming out from a cut on her thumb. wincing, she placed the shard of mirror back into the pouch and resealed it.

maybe she just wasn’t cut out to be a soldier after all.


End file.
